Transformation Through Partnership

Transformation Through Partnership

The terms were being set but the exchange and learning toward growth was not yet evident.

Learning in partnership between the Client and Process Consultant: the Client’s transformation is the center of forming and operating this partnership. The partnership flows back and forth as Client and Process Consultant work their way through the Process. The Process Consultant brings their commitment to Client Transformation to this partnership.

I was asked to run an hour-long session on well-being for a senior leadership team. As a Process Consultant, I asked questions, listened, reflected, and listened more to, for, and with the Client. Through our exploratory conversations, the Client shared objectives, outcomes, ways to navigate the team experience, areas to avoid, and resounding clarity on what they did not want: taking care of ourselves with yoga mats and candles. 

Next steps, I took to the internet to determine the definition of wellness, and I was met with language from “disease free” to over 65 magazines on wellness, wellbeing, and balance in your life. I realized I was being told how to be and what I needed rather than learning with the Client to understand their definition of wellness and what they wanted to do with their findings. 

I spoke with a friend who runs wellness retreats. She cited articles, research, organizations, and auras that I could explore as I put content to our agreement. As I got deeper into researching wellness, my heart stopped: I never asked the Client, “what does wellness mean to you?”

“What does wellness mean to you and why is that important for your team?”

Together we realized it would be important to learn from each participant their understanding of wellness for them and for the team and to co-create a conversation that could support them as they build upon their work. 

The process of asking, listening, reflecting, and building allowed for this Process Consultant and Client to develop an experience that met them where they are with their definitions rather than simply talking at them. We both learned an important lesson as we built a process based on the participants’ language, experience, and aspirations which meant they could continue to evolve their understanding and develop a process to support their team.

If learning is a partnership between the Client and the Process Consultant, our goal should have been to co-create an opportunity to be with the team for an hour. It was feeling like a session that would have been one side as delivering to “hearers,” not listeners, and not much room for engaging. I needed to go deeper with the Client. I started to listen architecturally as we discussed every angle of the session ranging from personalities, setting, and how the conversation would fit into their three-day retreat to lean in deeply to what they were seeking to address: to take care of their definition of wellness as a team.  

The survey gave the participants room to share their definitions, hopes to achieve well-being on their own terms within their culture, and design a process together to honor new shared healthy behaviors. Our conversation laid the foundation for a shared understanding of what well-being meant for them, and that definition was the right definition!

Lukie Wells
Design Group International
Senior Consultant

The core competencies of process consulting have been developed and are taught by the Society for Process Consulting. If you are interested in receiving your credential in process consulting please visit our website.